Inside the Illinois workshop building 10,000-pound monster trucks

Last month, monster trucks roared into St. Louis’ Dome at America’s Center. They had gathered for Monster Jam, an event featuring massive vehicles tearing along a dirt track, and even taking flight.

The region has a distinct connection to the culture of monster trucks. It’s not just that Bigfoot, which essentially created the phenomenon of monster trucks in the 1980s, hails from St. Louis. About 55 miles south of St. Louis along the Mississippi River, at Concussion Motorsports in Ellis Grove, Illinois, owner Rich Inman has spent two decades honing his craft — as a master builder of monster trucks.

“Every weekend, these things will go 20, 30 feet in the air and come crashing down doing backflips,” he said during a recent visit to his shop. “They've got to be built extremely strong.”